It’s important sometimes to get insight on what not to do when it comes to growing your fitness business. I’m going to cover five of the mistakes I’ve made over the years so you know what to look out for.

I spent a long time building the fitness business I have today.

Along the way I felt a lot of frustration and dealt with plenty of failures. I’ve had to learn about every single aspect of running a business beyond the coaching side of things. That meant learning about marketing, sales, finance, and all of the other systems that are so vital to a successful business.

I’ve had plenty of wins along the way, made a lot of money and changed many lives. I’ve also messed up along the way.

I want you to learn from my mistakes and build a stronger business.

You ready?

Here are five of the biggest mistakes I want to make you aware of.

Mistake #1 – Copying Other People’s Tactics

We tend to copy what successful people in our industry do.

It’s a survival response because we think that if we do the same things they do we’ll get the same results.

The reality is that copying other entrepreneurs doesn’t work. They built a business that is successful for their particular niche, team and personality. It probably won’t work for you.

It’s crucial to understand that you have to copy thinking, not tactics. That’s what my clients The Body Transformers discovered when they started working with me:

When Body Transformers came to me, they were a couple of months away from shutting their doors. That’s a far cry from the success they’d enjoyed early on.

They’d grown the business up to a certain point and then hit a plateau. Then they stagnated and started to decline. They knew the theory of what they needed to do, but had trouble taking action. With nobody to hold them accountable, they couldn’t stick to the program.

They attended one of my seminars and left with more great ideas. But they knew they needed help implementing them. They decided to hire me to make sure they stayed focused and did what they needed to do. Now nothing could hold them back.

Don’t let the day-to-day details overwhelm your big-picture vision. Being overly concerned with the little things can sap your energy to move forward.

Make sure to prioritize strategy over tactics. Stay focused on your end goals and take action to complete them.

Ask yourself questions like these to figure out your long-term strategy:

• How do I want to run my business?
• What do I want my roles and responsibilities within the business to be?
• Where do I see my see my business in five years? Ten? Twenty?
• How much time do I want to spend on the gym floor?
• What kind of clients do I want to coach?

The answers to these questions will help you figure out what’s really important to you. Once you know that, you’ll know what your goals are and be able to develop a strategy to achieve them.

And if you need a little help getting motivated, there’s no shame in hiring someone to help out. After all, isn’t that what coaches are for?

Mistake #2 –  Letting Other People Make You Feel Small

Have you ever looked at someone else and thought “I’m not good enough?”

It’s something I used to do. I’ve seen many fitness professionals do it too. We compare ourselves to other people and use them as the measuring stick for success.

If you see a successful trainer or gym owner and feel resentful, it says a lot about you and your self-image. It also says a lot about how much you believe in yourself.

When you feel triggered it’s important to stop what you’re doing and identify the bottlenecks in your business.

There are 5 core drivers to business growth.

1. Lead generation
2. Lead nurture
3. Sales
4. Delivery
5. Client retention

Every now and again, stop what you’re doing and identify the area you’re struggling with the most. This is the best way to prioritize your time and get unstuck.

Bear in mind, working on new challenges is like training weak muscle groups. Whether it’s sales, tactical stuff, paying taxes, or the logistics of running a business – these are all things that you need to train.

Change is uncomfortable, which is why so many people sit around doing nothing instead. They tell themselves they can’t do what successful coaches do, so they don’t even try.

The truth is that they’re scared.

I have a poster on my wall that says “Go Where the Fear Is.”

As corny as it sounds, fear shows you where your growth is. Whatever challenges scare you the most are the exact things you need to confront. Otherwise, the fear of confronting those challenges just sits in your head all day.

And when you’re in your head, you’re dead.

It’s not about other people. They’re not running your business, which means you don’t need to worry about what they’re doing.

It’s about what you’re going to do to face your own challenges so you can grow as a person and a business owner.

Mistake #3 – Not Investing in Yourself Sooner

Every single time I’ve put money into myself, the return has been colossal.

The connections I’ve built and the energy I’ve felt make a huge difference. I get access to other people’s insights and have the ability to ask questions.

But early on, I tried to win at business on my own. That’s like going on a journey without a roadmap. Trying to do it without the right people around you is futile.

Mel Gibson, one of my clients, is a fitness studio owner who’s experienced his own setbacks over the years. He’s benefited enormously from investing in himself.

Mel has suffered from depression and anxiety for a long time. At one point, he even tried to take his own life.

He entered the health and fitness sector because he saw the benefits it gave him and he wanted to inspire other people.

Unfortunately, he lacked confidence as a businessman and a person. That lack of confidence carried over into his ability to sell.

He decided he needed to invest in himself.

Mel joined Authority Network and found himself surrounded by amazing people who wanted to help him confront his challenges. His confidence grew week-on-week.

He started out with three clients. After eight weeks, he had 22. By week 16, he’d opened up his own gym.

It might never have happened if he hadn’t invested in himself.

Investing in yourself doesn’t necessarily have to mean going to a Mastermind. It could mean buying a piece of software to do work for you. It may mean hiring new staff or putting money back into your business.

It literally boils down to buying help so you can play at your full potential.

Mistake #4 – Overcomplicating Your Offer

I remember how complicated I made things for myself back in my personal training days.

Some of my clients were on a package that gave them eight sessions with me per week. Others were on a package that gave them six sessions. I also had clients who received two or three sessions per week.

All of these different packages created confusion around my product. As a result, I found it really difficult to sell because I didn’t know where to focus when selling.

Many of the gym owners I work with are exactly the same. They’ve too many fiddly short term programs that are a nightmare to scale. As a result they end up with a high churn and more work than their team/systems can handle.

Simplicity is essential. The less moving parts in your offer the better.

One of my Mastermind coaching clients had the same problem. When I spoke to them, I found that they offered one-on-one personal training and one-on-two sessions. They had semi-private six-week packages with either 6, 12, or 18 sessions.

On top of that, they had open gym sessions.

This made it really complicated for them to sell because the client didn’t know the true value of their offer. They had so many offers going that they couldn’t focus on the value they provided.

You’ve got to simplify so it’s easy to sell and easy to onboard new clients. You need to be able to say:

“If you work with me, here’s what I can do for you. Here’s how it works and here are the timeframes.”

When you have a super complex offer, it’s a sign of your own insecurity. You’re trying to manipulate the logistics of your offer to suit the customer.

The reality is that you should only work with people you know you can help and who are willing to do the work.

Switch your mindset to selling solutions and tell the client exactly what they really need!.

Mistake #5 – Not Charging Enough

Ask yourself right now if your service is worth the price you’re charging?

Add another 20% to that price and ask yourself the same question again.

If you said “yes” the second time then why aren’t you charging the higher price?

Don’t worry about the kickback. If your service is worth it, you’ve got to charge more. Y

ou need to have the confidence to express the value you deliver. Your clients will get the outcome of all of the energy you pour into your offer.

You know the changes you can bring to somebody’s life. The issue is that a lack of confidence in your offer means you don’t feel like you can charge what it’s worth.

You need to believe in yourself and what you’re doing. That’s how you bring energy into your sales process and help clients understand why you charge what you do.

If you haven’t put your prices up in the last six months, I urge you to do so. I even have an amazing sales script that teaches you how to increase your prices without sounding salesy.

Grab it here.

Stop Making My Mistakes

Make these changes and soon you’ll watch your fitness business grow.

• Don’t copy tactics. Copy thinking and build a business that suits you NOT someone else.
• Stop minimising yourself. Stay in your own lane!
• Investing in yourself and your business is not an expense. You’re buying speed.
• Simplify your offer and charge more!

I hope this helps you to avoid some of the mistakes I’ve made along the way. Take care.

Ps. Whenever you’re ready there are 3 ways you can partner with me and my team to grow your fitness business.

1. Check out Fitness Business Growth Kit → Here

This is the entire end-to-end system for plugging into any fitness business. It’s a 8-week build out of business foundations, sales, client delivery, scaling, and a custom 30 day challenge. Lifetime access. But it’s an 8-week drive for the growth you’re ready for. 

2. Apply for Authority Network and Partner Directly With My Team → Here

Direct mentorship with me and my team started by assessing your current business strategy, assessing blindspots, fixing immediate weaknesses… 

And building new scalable foundations. Specifically to coaches and entrepreneurs looking to crack £10K months, get out of the gym, and grow online. 

3. Discover More About Power Room

I take on a specific group of already 6-figure fitness entrepreneurs and dial into their goals. Sometimes it’s more freedom, sometimes it’s a wealth machine, sometimes it’s both. 

This is limited, extremely private, and intimate. If you’re reading this and have reached a level where you’re above everyone else, apply here → Here